Sir Bobby Charlton will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at
tonight?s BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony.

Recognition: BBC award winner Sir Bobby Charlton, pictured with his England team-mates after winning the World Cup at Wembley in 1966Photo: GETTY IMAGES

By Duncan White

7:59PM GMT 13 Dec 2008

The award, which will be presented to Sir Bobby by his brother Jack, is to recognise Charlton's immense contribution to football with Manchester United and England.

The timing of the award is particularly apposite: this year is the 50th anniversary of the Munich air crash, which Charlton survived, and the ceremony, which starts at 7pm on Sunday night in Liverpool, will be attended by fellow survivors.

Charlton, 71, played an incredible 758 games and scored 249 goals in a distinguished career for Manchester United, in which he won the league three times and the FA Cup once. Perhaps even more impressive was his international record. He was instrumental to England as they won the World Cup in 1966 and his 49-goal record for his country is yet to be bettered. He was the 1966 European Player of the Year and two years later he captained the United side that became the first English team to lift the European Cup.

He still plays a vital role as an ambassador for both United and the England national team, and he has long campaigned for a World Cup to be hosted on these shores. He is a director of United and remains heavily involved in the club, famously leading the team to collect the Champions League trophy in Moscow last season.